We generally agree to recommend an agreement to the plural in statements like these: it is one of the best applications that have been submitted;One of the things that struck me the most is the courage of the people of this country;He is one of those scientists who have changed the world;One of the most frequent errors that are made is to underestimate the opponent.
In these examples, the relative pronoun has, certainly, a grammatical history in the singular (one, one), but it is its "logical" history (Le Bon Use, 2016, § 434) which governs the verb agreement.In other words, in one of these scientists who have changed the world, the speaker grants the verb of the relative with these scientists because they are the ones who have changed the world, and not one among them.In one of the most frequent errors that are committed, the speaker favors the association of who with frequent errors rather than one of them.The same reasoning applies to the applications that have been submitted and to the things that have struck me.
Sometimes the singular ...
Relative unanimity is also observed in terms of statements where the "logical" history coincides with the grammatical history: in response to one of the detractors who questioned him, he just smiled;I became friends with one of the second -hand dealers who had sold me this antiquity;One of those photos that was lost in family papers particularly moved me.
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— maura quint Mon Jun 07 04:16:58 +0000 2021
The agreement in the singular, in these examples, is governed by the person or the object that emerges from the collective: only the detractor who questioned him receives a smile from him;Among the second -hand dealers, only one sold this antiquity to me;Only one photo particularly moved me.Hence this trick given by certain grammarians: if you can replace one (or one) with that (or that), the agreement of the verb to the singular is essential.
Sometimes the punctuation comes to the rescue, with a comma in front of the relative pronoun indicating that it is dissociated from the complement which precedes it-which cannot therefore be considered as its "logical" history: I had to separate fromone of my dogs, which had become aggressive;He contacted one of my advisers, who listened to him carefully;I bought one of the recently published books, which was highly recommended to me.
But preferably a motivated choice
With the phrases one of those who, one of those who, does the plural stands out as "obvious"?Not at all, as some preceding examples suggest, as well as several quotes provided by good use or by Littré (in word one).When Charles du Bos writes in his newspaper: "May Sinclair is one of those who [...] solicits and draws attention", he favors an agreement to the singular who distinguishes the British writer from other women worthy of attention.The same goes for Boileau (Epistre IV), about M.de Soubise, writes that he is "one of those who have gotten most there".
The case of one of those who and the towers with two potential agreement donors is far from isolated.There are other possible syllepses, especially with constructions expressing the highest degree: a secret of the best kept or kept;a most protected or protected minority.Even if some purists only admit the agreement to the plural after, we understand that another logic, of a semantic nature, can prevail and promote the singular of the nominal nucleus (a secret, a minority).
No doubt it is a somewhat complex material, but when grammatical spelling serves the accuracy of the expression, let's not fail to emphasize it.At the risk of causing one of those headache - or headache?- Who should not - or shouldn't?- worry ...
